Mark Leary-How to navigate yourself in freelancing

Mark Leary was kind enough to come in and share his experience and journey in the graphic design field. From joining a government agency to becoming independent with freelance work.

Leary went to study design in college in 1994, and very soon after found a job working at 'Purple Circle' in April 1995. He made a decision to then move to London to work at a brand building studio called Bentley Holland in 1998.

Leary recalled that his career turning point, after working for around six agencies, is when he had gotten a job working at BMW's website development. The work it's self was very corporate and precise, there were little to no creative exploration, as BMW's branding is quite monotoned, which complies with it's market's audience. He began to do some side jobs on his own volition. Overtime and un-expectedly, those side jobs would start to take up so much of his time that it interfered with his work at BMW. BMW's team were nice enough to then take him on as a freelancer instead, so he could focus his work on his own brand. Finally Leary had been able to become completely independent, but not without having made several mistakes along the journey.

When representing yourself to bigger companies as a freelancer, this could leave room for companies to under value you. That's when boundaries must be set in place before continuing to work with them. Leary said how you should be asking for 50% of the over price as a deposit, and only start the product design after the deposit is received, as he has had to learn the hard way. Another word of advice Leary shared is that every client is different and you have to become adaptable and flexible with them within reason.

'' You have to become a salesman whether you like it or not'', adding to lessons Leary had learnt, you have to present yourself and show how you would be of benefit to a client.

He added just as a side note too (which I thought was helpful) which is to not work in RGB first, to working in CMYK first and then RGB and colour match your screen. It's best to think in physical print when doing digital designs, the caution taken during the first step would allow digital designs to be later printed in true colour if required.

Lastly, the quote that would stay with me even after this talk is 'If you love what you're doing it will work, not everyone is going to go down the same path'. Leaving with that note, it made me realise how no one's career path is linear in progression, and sometimes a little bit of a gut feeling will urge you in the right direction. It's nature to want to invest and focus on doing what excites you, and at that point you're not even competing in the market by forcing yourself to do extra milage anymore, you're naturally investing your time with willingness and ease. It's almost like when you're exercising, the process can be painful and you want to give in, but when it's over you're even happier before you started and thankful you didn't quit, that motivates you to want to do it all again. Being uncomfortable during your progression in career is always a good sign, human's have a self sabotaging idealism sometimes to stay away from anxiety, but that anxiety can translate to excitement when in the right framework.

That satisfaction is the result of a successful career journey in design.